Features
Prince’s Final Aussie Shows Win At Helpmanns
The sold-out Australian leg of Prince’s Piano And A Microphone Tour won Best International Contemporary Concert at the 16th Helpmann Awards.
Photo: Renee Jones Schneider/Star Tribune via AP
A memorial for Prince is set up on the fence outside Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minn.
These were held in Sydney’s Lyric Theatre July 25, broadcast on cable channel Foxtel Arts. Australian promoter Paul Dainty, chairman of Dainty Group, said, “Prince was among the most gifted artists I’ve had the pleasure and privilege to work with. Those lucky fans who saw the shows would know why he deserved this award, which I accept with sadness.”
The tour included 10 theatre dates in Sydney and Melbourne Feb. 16-24 – the sails of the Sydney Opera House became purple for two shows there – and marked the late performer’s first show in New Zealand. The Prince show was up in the category against Brian Wilson (Bluesfest), Fleetwood Mac (Live Nation) and Florence and The Machine (Laneway Presents, Chugg Entertainment in association with Sydney Opera House).
The best contemporary Music Festival category went to WOMADelaide, over Bluesfest Byron Bay, the national Laneway and Tasmania’s left-of-centre Mona. The Aussie instalment of the UK’s world music WOMAD this year set an attendance record. It drew 75,000 to Adelaide’s Botanic Park March 10-13. Among the acts were De La Soul, St Germain, Angelique Kidjo & the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, The Cat Empire, John Grant, Calexico, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Asian Dub Foundation and All Our Exes Live in Texas.
Best Australian contemporary concert went to a Jan. 18 capacity team-up by pop-operatic singer-songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and visual artist Amy Gebhardt for the MOFO festival in Tasmania. Other category nominees were Vance Joy (Vance Joy Frontier Touring, Unified and Village Sounds), Flight Facilities with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, at the Melbourne Festival, and the star-studded A State Of Grace featuring the music of Tim and Jeff Buckley (Gaynor Crawford Presents, Kirsten Siddle, State of Grace Company).
The 2016 Helpmanns, organised by Live Performance Australia, handed out 42 awards covering theatre, opera, dance, children’s, ballet, classical and more. Overall winner was “Matilda The Musical,” based on Roald Dahl’s book, with 13 wins out of as many nominations, including best musical, best original score for Tim Minchin and best director for Britain’s Matthew Warchus.